The United States will seek to hunt down and kill new al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri just as it did his predecessor Osama bin Laden, the top US military officer said on Thursday.
"There is not a surprise from my perspective that he's moved into that position," Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told journalists after the Egyptian leader was named the new al Qaeda chief.
"He and his organization are still threatening us, and as we did both seek to capture and kill -- and succeed in killing -- bin Laden, we certainly will do the same thing with Zawahiri."